By Isabela Bela Testoni, Brazil / July 2022 I am writing this brief experience close to the end of my journey in CICD, and all I can say is how much I am grateful for the time I spent here. At the beginning I was supposed to stay only for three weeks, but it ended being almost two months of volunteering. My daily routine was basically gardening, sharing tasks in the daily routa for cooking and cleaning, and living as a part of the community where I could see that even in small actions, we have the chance to learn...

By Anne Hoejholt, leader of ISET – One World’s distance learning programme. 2021 The world of today presents us with unprecedented challenges and situations. What would a competent education for the 21st century look like? As teachers living in outstandingly fast paced times, it is legitimate to ask ourselves: how can we imagine and design an appropriate education for the 21st century? In other words, what should schools look like, to prepare the students of today for the challenges of tomorrow? In this article, we would like to argue why the current educational system needs to be radically rethought, and...

My name is Pamela Degele and I have been part of the Gaia team of CICD since February 2022, with the goal to raise the scholarship for my 12-month Poverty Activist programme. During this time, I have integrated in two main activities. The first one is in the area of promotion, where I mainly develop my volunteer activity. In this office my task is to attract and advise people from different countries about the school. Between three and four colleagues we discuss the most effective way to spread and communicate the objectives and programmes of the college. The second one...

Hello there, I am Mel, teacher at CICD, recently arrived from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, after 2 months working with Richmond Vale Academy and environmental projects running there together with a team of 6 from CICD – the Climate Activist team. Today I want to share with you news from DAPP Zambia - one of our partners and a member of the Federation Humana People to People. This is more specifically about a project that I very much admire – Total Control of the Epidemic - TCE. This project delivers health services to fight some of the big epidemics:...

By Agustina Bastias, CICD Climate Activist at Richmond Vale Academy in St Vincent & the Grenadines Community work, a challenging journey of mutual development These last weeks we started to work with the communities… yes, finally. Even when we have had a really good time helping with the restoration of RVA during our first month and building more confidence and team spirit during that process, we were looking forward to go out to the communities and explore deeper the Vincentian culture. The two activities we just did with the communities were related with clean ups, but also with the beautification...

Hello from St Vincent & the Grenadines! My name is Mel and I am the Climate Activist team teacher at CICD. In November 2020 we started up a new team at CICD that had a period of almost 2 months of getting ready for a project period of 3 months in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, working with local farmers and communities to improve food security. 2 weeks before finishing the preparation period at CICD the volcano on the island started to wake up and we couldn’t manage to finalise our programme. We waited from the beginning of 2021 until...

ADPP is short for Development Aid from People to People in Portuguese, the official language of Mozambique. Mozambique was a Portuguese colony until 1974. Mozambique is one of the World’s 10 poorest countries - with 73% of the people in multi dimentional poverty. The people have huge obstacles in their fight to improve their lives. International solidarity from organisations such as ADPP is an important support. Here below you get a glimpse of the stark reality of the conditions in this beautiful country. Further down you find the Year Report 2020 from ADPP Mozambique. It is full of impressive examples...

My name is Luis, I'm from Portugal and I live in Sunderland UK. I work as Clothes Collection Driver in CICD in Durham, where I find the purpose of contributing to reducing the imbalance caused by climate change. As I use to say, every donation of a bag of clothes that I put into the van makes me feel that I contribute to a better society, cutting down less trees, contributing to cleaning, giving a second life to many of these clothes and the opportunity to those most disadvantaged people of obtaining certain low price items of second-hand clothing, which new...

Hello! I’m Pavel Redkin, 53, a retired teacher and self-employed ESL tutor from Russia. I was 39 and had been working at school for 22 years as a teacher including international AFS student exchange programmes. I was always hardworking and quite busy when one day I realized that daily routine had made me bored. I was looking for something really new and exciting in my life, I wanted just to travel, see the world and do something helpful for people around. That is why I joined CICD and enrolled for Development Instructor team in 2008. A completely new life Everything...

Minga Indigena - the Indigienous Way of knowledge and balance with nature All through the 2 weeks of COP26 there were hundreds of meetings and workshops and debates, many “in person” and many also online. Our small CICD delegation attended some different debates and presentations. We started with Minga Indigena. There is a large gathering of Indiginious elders and activists from the Americas at COP26, and we went to an event about “False solutions to the climate crisis – the disguise of Net Zero and carbon markets” where 5 speakers and 2 translators shared their experiences with the public and...

Please enjoy this short report from the streets of Glasgow during COP26! It was an amazing experience! We met so many inspiring people, including from different parts of the peace movement, as you can read more about in this story. Because even though it’s not widely spread information, the military has an ennormous carbon footprint. This is being largely “swept under the carpet” when countries discuss how to reduce their CO2 emissions. Here our teacher Mel tells about her experience... Our last days in Glasgow Joining big marches and demonstrations always boost our spirits. We have joined 2 marches in...

I found out about CICD when I met 2 of its volunteers in Bradford, where they were selling magazines to raise money so they could travel to their projects in Africa. Why I decided to join CICD I was working as a street fundraiser for Amnesty International when I first found CICD. I knew that one day I wanted to go to one of these developing countries, so I could get involved myself, rather than just fundraising on the streets. This is something that excited me, so I jumped at the chance to join CICD. It meant a lot to...

The Organic Garden Farm here at CICD covers an area of around 80 m x 45m, divided into two sections – one with the greenhouse and the raised beds, and the other for the potato field and the poultry. We have 20 chicken and six ducks, that give us on average 13 eggs per day. We have two greenhouses with raised beds for tomatoes and a lot of herbs and spices. We have a special section for potatoes: five big beds each of 25 x 2,5 m. Then we have all our other crops: onions, leeks, cabbage, courgettes, french beans,...

My time at CICD has been an amazing and insightful learning experience, in an inclusive and welcoming community. The climate activist programme has hugely developed my understanding of the many aspects of climate change and the significance of how our own actions impact the world globally. I have been inspired through learning of all the small projects, both internationally and in the UK, that are working to reconnect society with nature, are raising awareness of how we can better use the resources we have and demonstrating the huge impact simple solutions can have on ourselves and the natural world. I...

CICD is part of a network of schools - we call ourselves "Another Kind of School". Educational institutions of many kinds and for all ages - with a modern and experience based pedagogical approach, and with love and space for all students to develop and grow in their own way. Here we introduce to you: PTG International Youth College (Ungdomshøjskolen PTG) in Denmark PTG is a private and independent boarding school where young people from 18-30 years can study, work and live together. It is based at Tvind international campus in the country side in western Denmark. Among the neighbours at...

4 months ago in April Monzer and Roula, two of our students, decided to take the responsibility for running our garden farm when their programmes were put on hold. They stepped up to the plate – and it has gone really well! They have learned a lot through own studies as well as through their practice. Learning by doing is one of the keys to studies, work and life here at CICD – and not only in the garden! There are a million details to remember and do the right way, and at the right time...everything from the spacing between...

One of the areas of study & debate for the Climate Activist summer course is ways to resolve the climate crisis. What kind of economic system can make it possible to reduce emissions enough to avoid an escalating climate breakdown? In the light of the recent IPCC report, this is now a very urgent discussion to have. Is Green capitalism a good alternative to the present system? Here is Beth Cunninghams take on this! The idea of Green Capitalism Green capitalism is contradictory by nature and is inherently unsustainable. Also called market-economy, it purports to create wealth and, spur innovation...

Global inequality is worsening the suffering caused by climate change and the Covid19 pandemic. This summer extreme weather caused by climate change has seriously affected Europe, with devastating floods in Germany, Belgium and Netherlands....and while writing this, wildfires are again raging out of control in Greece, Turkey and Russia. But this and worse extreme weather has hit many countries in the Global South for many years already. Climate Change and Global Warming are caused by the marketing economy's continuos race for infinite economic growth. This is a contradiction, as we live on a planet with finite resources.  Covid19 is most likely another consequence of the...

The 6 R-s: Repair, Reduce, Refuse, Reuse, Recycle, Repeat Our Climate Activist summer programme has just started, and one of the themes they study is the 6 R-s. Maybe you wonder: Does it really makes any difference what I do? The answer is YES – it does! Why re-cycle and repair and reuse..? Our “consumer society” is one of the reasons for rising CO2 emissions, causing global warming and climate change. We are often called "consumers" rather than "citizens". And our habits of shopping and consuming are causing huge environmental problems - because we are so many, and it has...

I am Madia, a 23 years old French-Gambian woman. I’m a marketing student and I have always been an open-minded person with a big curiosity. While I was in France finalizing my gap-year student, nothing was motivating me to stay in the country. I made the decision to have a WWOOFer experience. It was the perfect way to improve my English skills while leaving my comfort zone being closer to the nature. I joined CICD for two months without knowing what I was going to expect. The surprise was sincerely very good. Being part of the Garden Team Here the...